Amygdala Disruptions by Electromagnetic Radiation: A Proposal

Background of the Study

There has been a growing interest of the effects of today's communication means such as the cellular phones. It is widely yet colloquially known by people that electromagnetic radiation has negative effects on people. It has been said in trivia and the media that prolonged exposure on cellular phones and the like lead to degradation of brain cells. Evidences have been shown regarding this. In this study, some of these evidences are presented, with pregnant women and their children given more importance. With the advancement of technology, the future generation's dilemma may be about combating the side effects of such advancements. In order to prepare them, studies like this are vital for the children of those pregnant women in the present. Should it be that their exposure in electromagnetic fields affect them, this shall serve as a guide for their children on how the latter should continue to address the problem and produce a more tolerant society in the future.

These are questions raised in the paper: How are the children that the pregnant women carry affected by electromagnetic fields? And eventually, do these children struggle with deficiencies of brain cells, particularly that of amygdala? The amygdala is of interest in this paper as it is pivotal in one's regulation of fear and anger (http://www.sci.uidaho.edu/med532/amygdala.htm). The researcher's hypothesis is that there is a slight alteration in the cell count between the amygdala of prenatal exposure to EMF group and control group thus provoking higher susceptibility of depressive disorder for the experimental group.

Rats shall be used in the experiment and methods shall be patterned after previous experiments regarding EMFs.

Review of Related Literature

Electromagnetic fields (EMF) can be detrimental to both humans and animals. Schũz et al. theorized that chronic exposure leads to fatigue, headache, sleep disruption and loss of memory (as cited in Achudume, Aina, Onibere, & Tchokossa, 2010, p. 482). Mausset et al. and Dubreil et al. have studied this because it is alarming; mobile phones are usually in close proximity to the brain (as cited in Kaplan, Mollaoglu, Odaci, O Bas & Ucok, 2009, p. 378). Manikonda expresses the fact that activities in both the central and peripheral nervous systems are disrupted, making disturbances in neuronal activity such as learning and memory (p.378). Additionally, Juutilainen and De Seze and Lacy-Hulbert in separate papers pointed out that EMFs also cause leukemia and breast cancer as proven that EMFs affect the physiology and morphology of cells (as cited in Kaplan, Mollaoglu, Odaci, O Bas & Ucok, 2009, p. 377). A study in rats compared exposure to EMF, with the absence of EMF being the control and the presence of it being the experimental setup. By oxidative stress being the basis for comparison, 40 days of exposure to EMF did not induce stress to a rat. However, comparing it with the control setup, there was lesser glutathione activity and a minor decline in lipid peroxidation. In 60 days, oxidative stress was evident among the rats experimented. Energy levels showed a significant difference (P < 0.05) compared to the control. Also, a significant decrease in glutathione reduction resulted only to 11% of the control and along with this there was a decrease of catalase activity by 15% from the control. Such decrease in an activity triggered the accumulation of OH which is harmful. EMF exposure leads to stimulation of oxidative stress.

Hippocampus is one of the most vital parts of the brain and is near to the amygdala. Eyre et al., Lemaire et al., and Miki et al. provided the information that behavioral and cognitive functions (i.e. learning and memory) are highly dependent on the hippocampal activity.